A synchronized nocturnal ballet
The main gateway to a landlocked country, N’Djamena Airport is located to the west of the city center, less than three kilometers from the presidential palace, and features a single runway stretching 2,800 meters. For the Chadian authorities, this renovation—and more broadly, the modernization of the airport area—is crucial, as it aims not only to upgrade the existing infrastructure but also to increase its operational capacity to meet international standards.
Launched on May 6, 2025, the works unfolded in a tightly synchronized nightly ballet for 21 nights, focusing on strengthening the central 30 meters of the runway. This phase wrapped up on June 15.
A nocturnal ballet
Once the final flight of the day had taken off and the runway was cleared of aviation activity, construction machinery took over! Each night, the teams worked on strips 100 to 140 meters long, milling, vacuuming, tack-coating, producing and laying hot-mix asphalt, compacting, and finally applying paint for ground markings—all meticulously timed to the quarter-hour program to ensure the runway would reopen for the first morning flights.
FAYAT synergy
To accomplish all of this, over a hundred pieces of equipment were deployed at the site, from lighting to road machinery, with a strong presence of production and application equipment from FAYAT Group’s “Road Equipment” subsidiaries: a shining example of the Group’s complementarity and activity synergy!
· Ermont: 1 TSM 17 Major and 1 TSM 15 XLM for hot-mix asphalt production.
· SAE: 1 EPLT v19 for cationic emulsion and tack coat production.
· Secmair: 2 9500 L – 4x2 binder sprayers.
· Dynapac: 2 CC 2200 rollers and 2 CC 4200 VI rollers.
· BOMAG: 3 BF800C pavers, 3 BM 2000/60 milling machines, 1 BM 1000/35 milling machine, 1 BW 161 AD5 tandem vibratory roller, 2 BW 120 AD5 light tandem vibratory rollers, 1 BW 24RH pneumatic roller.
· Dulevo: 2 Dulevo 6000 EU4 6 m3 sweepers.
With the central portion now complete, work remains on the runway edges and shoulders, each 7.5 meters wide, as well as the turn pads at each end of the runway, all in accordance with ICAO standards.
By the end of the project, a total of 50,000 tons of hot-mix asphalt will have been produced and laid for this rehabilitation, over just under 50 nights.
